I should know better than to look at this thread, as the dismal quality of American Education (Egocentric? Yes, I suppose so.), as well as the general decline of Western Civilization, is a real issue with me.

I'll just watch this one for awhile.

Best Regards,
TerryO

__________________
"If you have to ask why, then you're probably on the right track."
quote from Terry Olson's DIYaudio Forum application

College is just one part of the mass delusional psychosis phenomena that I've had to dodge for years from various psychotic members of society. I graduated in 1982 (there was a recession then) with a BS in chemistry and couldn't get a job for 7 years in my field. Fortunately, I had no college debt. I lived with my father for about 39 years who was usually pissed off all the time. I worked at a lot of low social statis jobs and experienced a lot of hate from people who saw me as inferior because of the job I had. I thought of suicide a lot back then, but kept hanging on. I still live in the same house. My father passed away from lung cancer in 1999 and I never had a mortgage. I own the house and its paid off. I had to pay my brother and sister over $30k each to get it, since we each inherited a 3rd of my father's assets. Right now, I have to listen to some people who are jealous that I own a house with no mortgage. A lot of people demand that I pay them money because they think I owe them something. Some have even threatened to rob me. So now, I keep quiet about money with most people and try not to give advice or any information to anyone unless its necessary. I got a job as a patent examiner in 1989 and quit after 6 months because of the pressure and worked for over 20 years as a patent searcher and accumulated over $700,000 of debt free wealth because of my drive to escape the fear of being poor and being a victim of idiots' hate. I still live frugally while seeing over a $1000 of dividends deposited in my accounts each month as well as about $3k salary per month. Its all fiat money anyway which loses its value over time.

Before I graduated from college, I thought a degree was my ticket to success. Ironically, one significant thing I learned was a lot of the theory behind the 2nd law of thermodynamics in P. Chem. I put 2 and 2 together, remembered the gas lines of the 70's and realized the real life horror story about the oil dependence we are experiencing. The peak of world oil production has been predicted to come sometime in about the year 2000-2008 depending on the reference. I discussed the peak oil problem with people for about 30 years and found there are basically 2 types. The ones with a background in life sciences or engineering understand the problem that I'm discussing with them. Those without this background think we'll just use something else and everything will be fine. I've heard a lot of the same answers over and over. We'll just use something else, when it runs out I won't be here anyway, let them (their children) worry about it, etc.

Location: Mar del Plata, a BIG seasonal getaway city, can see the Ocean from our residence.

I am utterly appalled at this type of thinking!..........Yes indeed this maybe the "nail in the coffin" of the western world........giving rise to the industrious Chinese, et.al. China and its' contemporaries are cranking out degreed individuals at an increasing rate.......sealing the 'Wests' fate. The particular individual in the You-Tube link...was of course a University Professor. Doesn't seem odd that the very proponents of this discourse against Colleges....are the beneficiaries of said Degrees???? Irregardless of if it is outside their current occupation.
My brother-in-law is a High-school dropout.......I am often reminded of how limited his education is......by some obscure information that he has no clue, of its very existence.........nor detail.
So very sad.......the way things have become as of late.

When our daughter yesterday approached me with a math problem asking, "Dad, I'm confused, which one of this answers is right?" I wanted to kick ***** of those University graduates who wrote the book and the entire school program. They don't teach to think, they teach to select one "proper" answer from several presented. Srudents don't even think on a problem, they automatically start from ANSWERS trying to guess which one MAY FIT.

Like, when I tried to find a job in the industry I among other people pioneered, I faced people who interviewed me. They wanted to hear ONE RIGHT ANSWER to the question about how to do something in VERY FLEXIBLE UNIX OPERATION SYSTEM. I was giving them several most direct and simple ways to solve the problem, but they CONSIDERED THEM AS WRONG. Why? Because they got the same type of education our daughter is getting now, when they DO NOT KNOW WHY, they REMEMBER some NOT NECESSARY RIGHT AND OPTIMAL answers to questions.